DOCSLIB.ORG

Cover Page the Handle Holds

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Cover Page The handle https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3134736 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Massot, A.K.J.M. Title: Socio-political changes, confessionalization, and inter-confessional relations in Ottoman Damascus from 1760 to 1860 Issue Date: 2021-01-26 C H A P T E R 9 : J E W I S H - C H R I S T I A N R E L A T I O N S : C O M P E T I T I O N , B L O O D L I B E L S A N D M O N E Y - L E N D I N G In 1860, the Christian quarter of the city of Damascus was attacked. Houses were plundered and many Christians lost their lives.1 This attack was underlined by inter-confessional tensions between Christians and Muslims but also revealed the deteriorating relationship between Greek Catholics and Jews in the city. Indeed, Jews were accused of participating or at least benefiting from the violence against Christians.2 The themes present in the accusations each reveals a specific aspect of the Damascene Jews social and economic position. It also points to the development of sectarian narratives and reveals the increasing confessional consciousness of Jews and Christians. This chapter seeks to analyse the relationship between Christians and Jews in Damascus in the first part of the 19th century through the accusations against them in 1860 and inscribe them in the larger confessionalization of the society. First, we will analyse the accusations against the Jews in the aftermath of the violence of 1860. Second, this chapter will delve into the interpersonal competition between some Jewish and Greek Catholic families in the Ottoman administration which affected inter-confessional relations. Third, it will explore the financial role of the Jewish Damascene elite especially after the Crimean War and the accusations of blood libels which followed. 1. Accusations against the Jews in 1860 In the aftermath of the violence, Christians were asked by Fuad Paşa, the Ottoman foreign minister dispatched to Damascus, to denounce their attackers who were immediately arrested and punished without a serious judgement. These arbitrary proceedings encouraged 1 For a detailed account of the events see Fawaz, An Occasion for War. 2 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860; F.O. 195/601, Brant-Bulwer, October 8th 1860. 292 some individuals to take advantage of the situation to settle old scores, get rid of competitors or ransom accused parties for funds. Some Christians accused Jews which led to their imprisonment. The accusations against the Jews and the difficulty with which their innocence was proven, shows a dysfunction of the extraordinary tribunal set up by Fuad Paşa to punish the guilty parties. The simple denunciation of a Christian was enough to lead to the arrest of the accused party, then the latter would be brought in front of the tribunal and the plaintiff would have to bring proofs of his allegations. However many plaintiffs did not show up so the prisoner was kept in jail until proofs could be brought.3 These long trials were an occasion for bribes and financial exaction. The French consul even remarked that a non-eyewitness testimony was enough to get someone arrested. While foreign powers agreed to this system of arrest on simple denunciation when it came to judge Muslims, they protested that it was unfair when it came to the Jews.4 One month after the violence, the British consul James Brant reported that Jews were harassed by Christians who attempted to obtain money from them under threat of violence.5 A Jewish man was blackmailed by two Christians who threatened to accuse him of having participated in the massacres unless he gave them a bribe. He had no other choice than to give them a small amount of money to save himself.6 When Fuad Paşa left Damascus to Beirut in the winter of 1860, Jews were accused by some Christians of participating on a larger scale in the plunder and massacres of 1860. Many of them were arrested by the government in the absence of the foreign minister.7 The accusations and arrests of Jews involved specific Greek Catholic government employees whose actions reveal the competition between members of the two communities for administrative posts. One of the Christians behind these accusations was Ibrāhīm Karamī, 3 BOA, HR.SFR.3.55.21, December 22nd 1860; F.O, 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860. 4 A.E., CPC, 50.MD, vol. 122, Minutes of the Beirut commission, November 14th 1860. 5 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Bulwer, July 25th 1860. 6 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860. 7 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860; F.O. 195/601, Brant-Bulwer, October 8th 1860. 293 an employee of Fuad Paşa. Ibrāhīm Karamī was the son of the secretary of Emir Bašīr Šihāb, Buṭrus Karamī, a Greek Catholic from Homs who resided in Sidon.8 He was related to the Baḥrī family and had important positions as advisor of governors or emirs. He and his sons were thus part of the traditional Greek Catholic elite. 9 Ibrāhīm Karamī was previously employed in the office of translation in Beirut. When the Foreign Minister Fuad Paşa arrived to Beirut after the violence of 1860, he took Ibrāhīm to Damascus and employed him as a secretary and Arabic interpreter. Fuad Paşa set out to punish the guilty parties and financially help Christians who had lost their belongings. He imposed a extraordinary tax on the Muslim population to give reparations to Christians, and he put Ibrāhīm Karamī in charge of distributing the revenue of the tax among Christians. When Fuad Paşa left, Ibrāhīm Karamī presented himself falsely as his delegate in front of the consuls, and pretended to be in charge of all the affairs of the Christians. However, according to the British consul, he soon started to take bribes to give retributions, creating discontent among Christians. The British consul accused him of embezzling a certain amount of the exemption tax, freeing prisoners on his own will, stealing the money of consuls and not listening to the governor.10 He was also instrumental in imprisoning Jews for their alleged participation in the violence of 1860 and made sure they were not freed. He refused to accept witnesses other than Christians and thus Jews had no opportunity to defend themselves.11 He also didn’t allow Jews to have official representatives who would be present during the investigations.12 After Fuad Paşa returned to Damascus from Beirut in November 1860, he was called upon by the British consul James Brant who asked him to look into the matter of the 8 Mishāqah, Murder, Mayhem, 108. 9 Maẓlūm, Nubḏa, 288- 290; Mishāqah, Murder, Mayhem, 170; Farah, Politics of Interventionism, 118; Maẓlūm, Nubḏa, 288- 290; F.O. 196/601, Brant-Russel, October 8th 1860, November 8th 1860; Richard Edwards, La Syrie 1840–1862, histoire, politique, administration, population, religion et moeurs, évènements de 1860 d’après des actes officiels et des documents authentiques (Paris, Amyot, 1862), 251. 10 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, October 8th 1860; Wrench-Bulwer, November 5th 1860. 11 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860; F.O. 195/601, Brant-Bulwer, October 8th 1860. 12 A.E. CPC, Alexandria, Laurin-Vice Roy, May 15th 1840. 294 imprisoned Jews. A few days after almost all the Jews were freed. Five Jews had been kept in jail for weeks because of these accusations, and one had passed away.13 This release points to the political power held by the British consul as well as to the intrinsic dysfunction of the tribunal. Subsequently, Ibrāhīm Karamī’s accounts were examined, and he was arrested in Damascus and then sent to Beirut. In his luggage some 130 000 piasters were found14 and in his house stolen objects and money was also discovered.15 To be sure, he was probably not the only member of the tribunal to engage in such acts. The accusations against the Jews in 1860 were either of direct involvement or more generally of benefiting indirectly from the violence. These accusations were present in the chronicles written by Christians. The Christian chronicler Mīḫāʾīl Mišāqa argued that the Jews had stayed safe in 1860 because they bribed the ʿayān.16 Indeed, Jews were not attacked during the violence, the only Jewish house which was destroyed was the one of David Piccioto because it was located in the Christian quarter.17 The fact that they were not bothered by the attackers, although many of them were very wealthy, made them suspicious in the eyes of some Christians who accused them of connivance with the attackers.18 In Aleppo, during the attack of the Christian quarter in 1850, there were also rumors accusing Jews of participating in the violence.19 However, even if Jews were not targeted by the crowd in 1860, many of them fled, including all the last members of the Karaite Jewish community who settled in Cairo or Istanbul.20 Mīḫāʾīl Mišāqa mentioned that only Jews benefited from the violence because Muslims had to pay a very heavy tax which ultimately was used to pay back the Jewish 13 F.O. 78/1520, Brant-Russell, October 11th 1860. 14 F.O. 195/601, Wrench-Bulwer, November 5th 1860. 15 Edwards, La Syrie, 251. 16 Mishaqāh, Murder, Mayhem, 252. 17 Yaron Harel, Syrian Jewry in Transition, 1840-1880, trans. Dena Ordan, (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010), 176. 18 F.O., 78/1520, Brant-Russell, 16 june 1860.
Recommended publications
  • 1. Figures Derived from Arthur Ruppin, the Jewish Fate and Future (London: 1940), Table 1, P

    1. Figures Derived from Arthur Ruppin, the Jewish Fate and Future (London: 1940), Table 1, P

    Notes 1 'BARBARISM AND BIGOTRY' 1. Figures derived from Arthur Ruppin, The Jewish Fate and Future (London: 1940), Table 1, p. 29. Ruppin's figures are for 1850. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. 4. On the emancipation of the Jews, see Jacob Katz, Out of the Ghetto: The Social Background of Jewish Emancipation, 1770-1870 (New York: 1978). 5. See M.C.N. Salbstein, The Emancipation of the Jews in Britain: The Question of the Admission of the Jews to Parliament, 1828-1860 (London: 1982). 6. See Jonathan Sarna, 'The Impact of the American Revolution on American Jews', in idem., ed., The American Jewish Experience (New York: 1986); Eli Faber, A Time for Planting: The First Migration 1654-1820 (Baltimore: 1992) and Hasia R. Diner,v4 Time for Gathering: The Second Migration 1820-1880 (Baltimore: 1992; vols. 1 and 2 of The Jewish People in America series). Recent works on American anti- semitism which, in our view, overstate its volume and importance include Leonard Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America (New York: 1994), and Frederic Cople Jaher, A Scapegoat in the Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America (Cambridge, Mass.: 1994). On Australia, see Israel Getzler, Neither Toleration nor Favour: The Australian Chapter of Jewish Emancipation (Melbourne: 1970); Hilary L. Rubinstein, The Jews in Australia: A Thematic History. Volume One: 1788-1945 (Melbourne: 1991), pp. 3-24, 471-8. 7. See W.D. Rubinstein, A History of the Jews in the English-Speaking World: Great Britain (London: 1996), pp. 1-27. 8. For a comprehensive account of events see Jonathan Frankel, The Damascus Affair: 'Ritual Murder', Politics, and the Jews in 1840 (Cambridge: 1997).
  • The London School of Economics and Political Science

    The London School of Economics and Political Science

    The London School of Economics and Political Science The State as a Standard of Civilisation: Assembling the Modern State in Lebanon and Syria, 1800-1944 Andrew Delatolla A thesis submitted to the Department of International Relations of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, October 2017 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledge is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe on the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 101,793 words. 2 Acknowledgements This PhD has been much more than an academic learning experience, it has been a life experience and period of self-discovery. None of it would have been possible without the help and support from an amazing network of family, colleagues, and friends. First and foremost, a big thank you to the most caring, attentive, and conscientious supervisor one could hope for, Dr. Katerina Dalacoura. Her help, guidance, and critiques from the first draft chapter to the final drafts of the thesis have always been a source of clarity when there was too much clouding my thoughts.
  • Why Do They Hate Us?--Geography of the Palestine-Israel Conflict And

    Why Do They Hate Us?--Geography of the Palestine-Israel Conflict And

    “Why Do They Hate Us/U.S.?” and “Why Do We Hate Them?” Is It Because Of “Their” Islam Or Because Of “Our” Support For Israel? Geography of the Palestine-Israel Conflict Presentation to the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA, April 2008, and Bloomington, IN, November 2008 Mohamed Elyassini, PhD, Associate Professor of Geography, Indiana State University 1. “The bonds between the United States and Israel are unbreakable and the commitment of the United States to the security of Israel is ironclad… I and my administration have made the security of Israel a priority. It’s why we’ve increased cooperation between our militaries to unprecedented levels. It’s why we’re making our most advanced technologies available to our Israeli allies. It’s why, despite tough fiscal times, we’ve increased foreign military financing to record levels. And that includes additional support –- beyond regular military aid -– for the Iron Dome anti-rocket system… So make no mistake, we will maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge… You also see our commitment to our shared security in our determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Here in the United States, we’ve imposed the toughest sanctions ever on the Iranian regime… You also see our commitment to Israel’s security in our steadfast opposition to any attempt to de-legitimize the State of Israel. As I said at the United Nations last year, ‘Israel’s existence must not be a subject for debate,’ and ‘efforts to chip away at Israel’s legitimacy will only be met by the unshakeable opposition of the United States.’ So when the Durban Review Conference advanced anti-Israel sentiment, we withdrew.
  • Faith and Thought 108.3 (1981): 118-144

    Faith and Thought 108.3 (1981): 118-144

    FAITH 1981 AND Vol. 108 THOUGHT No. 3 A Journal devoted to the study of the inter-relation of the · Christian Revelation and modern research DAVID D. BRODEUR Palestine and the Victorian Restoration Moveme~t Dr Brodeur has already told the story of Blackstone and Hechler, Christians who in earlier days worked tirelessly to promote the Zionist cause. (See this JOURNAL, 100(3), 274-298) Continuing his researches Dr Brodeur has brought together the stories of Jews, and also Christians, who devoted wealth, time and prayer to the cause of Zionism during the decades prior to Hertzl. We are privi­ leged to publish some of his more recent findings. The R{'Dtor-ation MmJem,,nt/ Some say that the English fascination with the idea of a political restoration of the Jews to Palestine was inspired by the Rights of Man of the French Revolution; others simply attribute it to the rise of capitalism, which had such a profound influence upon colon­ ialism. In fact, the political process that achieved the social and political emancipation of the Jews in 19th century England had firm roots that go back at least to 16th century England. Those origins were consistently religious, and predominantly Protestant, a reality that is as puzzling to Arabic scholars of Zionism, like E.W. Said and A.M. Elmessiri, as it was unsettling to socialist commentators on Zionism like Moses Hess and Karl Kautsky. One of the first Englishmen upon whom the idea of a Jewish return to Palestine, prior to the millenial reign of Christ, force­ fully took hold was Thomas Brightman (1562-1607).
  • American Protestant Missionaries in Ottoman Syria, 1823 to 1860

    American Protestant Missionaries in Ottoman Syria, 1823 to 1860

    NEGOTIATING THE FIELD : AMERICAN PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES IN OTTOMAN SYRIA , 1823 TO 1860 Christine Beth Lindner A THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY University of Edinburgh 2009 In loving memory of my grandmother, Sophie Jaekel ii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the work of the missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and the rise of a Protestant community in Ottoman Syria, from the commencement of the missionary station at Beirut in 1823, to the dissolution of the community in 1860. The primary goals of this thesis are to investigate the history of this missionary encounter and the culture of the new community. This analysis is guided by the theoretical framework of Practice Theory and employs gender as a lens to explore the development of the Protestant identity. It argues that the Protestant community in Ottoman Syria emerged within the expanding port-city of Beirut and was situated within both the American and Ottoman historical contexts. The social structures that defined this community reflect the centrality of the ABCFM missionaries within the community and reveals a latent hierarchy based upon racial difference. However, tensions within the community and subversions to the missionaries’ definition of Protestantism persisted throughout the period under review, which eventually led to the fragmentation of the community in 1860. The contribution of this thesis lies in its investigation onto the activities of women and their delineation of Protestant womanhood and motherhood, as an important manifestation of Protestant culture. This work demonstrates the centrality of women to the development of the Protestant community in Ottoman Syria and reveals the complex interpersonal relationships that defined this missionary encounter.
  • Genesis and Prospect of the Palestine-Israel Conflict: from the Jewish Question in Europe to the Jewish State in Palestine and the Jewish Lobby in America

    Genesis and Prospect of the Palestine-Israel Conflict: from the Jewish Question in Europe to the Jewish State in Palestine and the Jewish Lobby in America

    Book Draft in Progress Genesis and Prospect of the Palestine-Israel Conflict: From the Jewish Question in Europe to the Jewish State in Palestine and the Jewish Lobby in America Dr. Mohamed Elmey Elyassini U.S. Fulbright Scholar 2011-2012 Associate Professor of Geography Department of Earth & Environmental Systems Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana, USA Email: [email protected] URL: https://www.indstate.edu/cas/faculty/melyassini 1 Book Draft in Progress To all dead, living, and unborn victims of Zionism and the State of Israel 2 Book Draft in Progress Table of Contents Acknowledgments Preface The Jewish Question in Europe 1. Introduction to the Jewish Question 2. The Non-Jewish Origin of Zionism 3. The Non-Herzlian Genesis of Herzlian Zionism The Jewish State in Palestine 4. The Non-Semitic Origins of Contemporary Jews 5. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Jewish Settlers since 1948 6. The Non-Zionist Future of Palestine The Jewish Lobby in America 7. What is the Jewish Lobby in the United States? 8. Branches of the Jewish Lobby in the United States 9. The Jewish Lobby at Work 10. Why Does America Support Israeli Jews who do not believe in Jesus against Palestinian Muslims and Christians who do believe in Jesus? Endnotes Chronology of Key Dates Maps Bibliography Index 3 Book Draft in Progress Acknowledgements While the acknowledgements section of a book praises the efforts of those who contributed to the work, it sometimes ought to denounce the efforts of those who tried to undermine the work. The central argument of this book was outlined in six conference presentations to the annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) between 2002 and 2008.

  • Franz Kobler "The Vision Was There

    France Kobler: “The Vision Was There” 1 Franz Kobler "The Vision Was There. A History of the British Movement for the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine" London, 1956 Preface Britain, Zionism, and the Creation of the State of Israel A Brit-Am On-Line Re-Publication Franz Kobler: "The Vision Was There. A History of the British Movement for the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine" London, 1956 Contents: Brit-Am Note PREFACE p.1 INTRODUCTION: Origins of the Movement p.5 PART ONE p.9 -THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MOVEMENT (End of the Sixteenth Century to 1666) 1. Pioneers and Martyrs. II. Messiahs and Prophets in the Great Rebellion III. Menasseh ben Israel's Answer: Restoration through Readmission - IV. " Annus Mirabilis" and Sabbatai Zevi PART TWO p.27 CONSOLIDATION AND TRANSITION POLITICAL ACTIVITY (1666-1830) I. Development of the Doctrine II. The Millenarian Revival in the Era of the French Revolution III. The Movement Gathers Strength IV. The Voice of Poetry V. The Response of Jewry and an American Interlude Preface 2 PART THREE p.47 THE GREAT CHANCE: THE EASTERN QUESTION (1830-1845) I. Lord Shaftesbury and the Heyday of the Movement II. Aftermath III. Jews Join the Movement IV. The Epic and the Epilogue: Judah's Lion and Tancred PART FOUR p.63 DIFFERENTIATION AND SYNTHESIS (1845-4895) I. New Men and New Schemes II. The Movement during the Crimean War III. Continuance and Transformation IV. The Visions of Robert Browning and George Eliot V. The Eastern Question 1877-78 and Disraeli's Restoration Experiment VI.
  • History of Zionism 1 History of Zionism

    History of Zionism 1 History of Zionism

    History of Zionism 1 History of Zionism Zionism as an organized movement is generally considered to have been fathered by Theodor Herzl in 1897; however the history of Zionism began earlier and related to Judaism and Jewish history. The Hovevei Zion, or the Lovers of Zion, were responsible for the creation of 20 new Jewish settlements in Palestine between 1870 and 1897.[1] Before the Holocaust the movement's central aims were the creation of a Jewish National Home and cultural centre in Palestine by facilitating Jewish migration. After the Holocaust, the movement focussed on creation of a "Jewish state" (usually defined as a secular state with a Jewish majority), attaining its goal in 1948 with the creation of Israel. Since the creation of Israel, the importance of the Zionist movement as an organization has declined, as the Israeli state has grown stronger.[2] The Zionist movement continues to exist, working to support Israel, assist persecuted Jews and encourage Jewish emigration to Israel. While most Israeli political parties continue to define themselves as Zionist, modern Israeli political thought is no longer formulated within the Zionist movement. The success of Zionism has meant that the percentage of the world's Jewish population who live in Israel has steadily grown over the years and today 40% of the world's Jews live in Israel. There is no other example in human history of a "nation" being restored after such a long period of existence as a Diaspora. Background: The historic and religious origins of Zionism Biblical precedents The precedence for Jews to return to their ancestral homeland, motivated by strong divine intervention, first appears in the Torah, and thus later adopted in the Christian Old Testament.
  • Lovers of Zion: a History of Christian Zionism

    Lovers of Zion: a History of Christian Zionism

    Scholars Crossing Article Archives Pre-Trib Research Center May 2009 Lovers of Zion: A History of Christian Zionism Thomas D. Ice Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/pretrib_arch Recommended Citation Ice, Thomas D., "Lovers of Zion: A History of Christian Zionism" (2009). Article Archives. 29. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/pretrib_arch/29 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Pre-Trib Research Center at Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in Article Archives by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Lovers of Zion: A History of Christian Zionism In the last couple of years the secular community and some in the religious community have woken up to the fact that much of the American Evangelical community is very supportive of the modern state of Israel. Guess what? They do not like it one bit! They see an ever increasing danger and even the possibility that Christian Zionism could bring about World War III. Genesis 12:3 records God’s promise to bless those who bless Abraham and his descendants (i.e., Israel). The Abrahamic covenant is directed to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants. It is repeated to them about twenty times in Genesis (12:1–3, 7–9; 13:14–18; 15:1–18; 17:1–27; 22:15–19; 26:2–6, 24–25; 27:28–29, 38–40; 28:1–4, 10–22; 31:3, 11–13; 32:22–32; 35:9–15; 48:3–4, 10–20; 49:1–28; 50:23–25).
  • Balfour Declaration

    Balfour Declaration

    Balfour Declaration Not to be confused with the Balfour Declaration of 1926. 1 Background The Balfour Declaration was a letter dated 2 Novem- The basis for British support for an increased Jewish ber 1917 from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary presence in Palestine was primarily linked to geopolitical Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron calculations.[1] 19th-century evangelical Christian beliefs Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for that the country should play a role in the Advent of the transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain Millennium and Christ’s Second Coming were not a pri- and Ireland. It read: mary motivating factor,[2] although they were later used as a retrospective justification.[lower-alpha 1] Early British political support was precipitated in the late 1830s and led by Lord Palmerston, following the His Majesty’s government view with favour Eastern Crisis after Muhammad Ali occupied Syria [4][5] the establishment in Palestine of a national and Palestine. French influence as protector of the home for the Jewish people, and will use their Catholic communities began to grow in the wider re- best endeavours to facilitate the achievement gion, as Russian influence began to grow as protec- of this object, it being clearly understood that tor of the Eastern Orthodox, leaving Britain without a [4] nothing shall be done which may prejudice the sphere of influence. The British Foreign Office worked civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish to encourage Jewish emigration to Palestine, exempli- communities in Palestine, or the rights and po- fied by Charles Henry Churchill's 1841-42 exhortations litical status enjoyed by Jews in any other coun- to Moses Montefiore, the leader of the British Jewish [6][lower-alpha 2] [6] try.
  • Race As a Global Political Category: Empire and the Paradox of Emancipation in Mid-Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Palestine

    Race As a Global Political Category: Empire and the Paradox of Emancipation in Mid-Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Palestine

    Race as a Global Political Category: Empire and the Paradox of Emancipation in Mid-Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Palestine Eric Sera A Thesis In The Department of History Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (History) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada August 2019 © Eric Sera, 2019 1 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Eric Sera Entitled: Race as a Global Political Category: Empire and the Paradox of Emancipation in Mid-Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Palestine and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (History) Complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final Examining Committee: ______________________________ Chair Ted McCormick ______________________________Examiner Andrew Ivaska ______________________________ Examiner Elena Razlogova _______________________________Supervisor Wilson Chacko Jacob Approved by _________________________________________________________ Chair of Department, Matthew Penney August 4th, 2019 ________________________________________ Dean of Faculty, André Roy ii ABSTRACT Race as a Global Political Category: Empire and the Paradox of Emancipation in Mid-Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Palestine Eric Sera This thesis explores how the perception of race, influenced by Enlightenment concepts of the nation and the political, was deployed as an operative category by the British Empire in nineteenth century Palestine. It will show how a racialized political hierarchy was substantiated through the humanitarian rhetoric of “protection” of minorities in late Ottoman Palestine. This line of thinking would be appropriated by the British Empire again in the twentieth century, and guided British policy-makers, such as the man under discussion in this thesis, Sir Mark Sykes.